Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Hola Thiago. Welcome to the Forum amigo!

all the best, Perry

Hi Thiago.

There is quite an interesting shakuhachi community in Brazil. The most interesting is, as already mentioned, Iwami Baikyoku, who is an iemoto and student of Araki Kodo III and IV. Dale Olsen has written the book 'The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora' Gainsville" University Press of Florida in 2004. It shows that there are quite a lot (all relative of course) of min'yo players, but especially Iwami keeps the honkyoku alive. Students of Iwami are among others: Olsen himself, Danilo Baikyo Tomic, Julio Baiko Kobayashi and Kuniji Natori.
Olsen mentions that Iwami Baikyoku is a very interesting case of music history as he is playing a style of kinko that has been lost already in Japan but due to his isolation in Brazil, he has kept that style alive.
Have fun playing shakuhachi! It is a wonderful instrument!

Justin wrote:

I saw on komuso.com that it says "In 1942, he received the title of master "Iemoto" at Kinko ryu, and named Baiyoku V." Is this what you are referring to? That is the only reference I have seen to any iemoto of Kinko-ryu. Do you know anything about this? Is it simply a mistake? It seems strange. Especially as his teacher, Araki Kodo IV did not die apparently until 1943.
And are you sure he also studied from Araki Kodo III? I noticed it does not mention this on komuso.com (not that that is definitive of course), but also since he was apparently born in 1923, he would have been only 12 years old when Araki Kodo III died.

Quoted from Olsen's book:
'Tsuna Iwami is the patriarchal Kinko-ryu shakuhachi performer and teacher in Brazil, and is still the most active leader of traditional japanese musical performances in Sao Paulo. He is an iemoto (highest level traditional teacher) who is known professionally as Iwami Baikyoku V. Iwami was one of the last students of Araki Kodo III and Araki Kodo IV, the latter teacher bestowing upon him his iemoto status in 1942...' (Olsen 2004:111-112).

Not that this is definitive either, but I did speak to Olsen who received his shihan license from Iwami and he spent some time in South America doing research. Indeed, Iwami can only have learned from Araki Kodo III as a child.

Justin wrote:

Kiku Day wrote:

Olsen mentions that Iwami Baikyoku is a very interesting case of music history as he is playing a style of kinko that has been lost already in Japan but due to his isolation in Brazil, he has kept that style alive.
Have fun playing shakuhachi! It is a wonderful instrument!

This seems to be a rather strange claim also. Would it be correct to assume that the Kinko syle he is referring to is the Kodo-kai style (the oldest Kinko-ryu style)? If so, that does not seem to make sense. The Kodo-kai style was transmitted to him it seems from Araki Kodo IV, who received it from his father Araki Kodo III. Kimurai Yusai was, along with Araki Kodo IV, one of the main disciples of Araki Kodo III. Since Araki Kodo IV died at an early age, Araki Kodo V learned from Kimura Yusai. Perhaps the claim that the style was lost in Japan was due to the fact that Araki Kodo V lived for a number of years in the U.S. The above statement could perhaps have been written during that time. Currently Araki Kodo V lives in Japan, and continues to head the Kodo-kai school which is very much alive.

What Olsen means here is, that when you live in an environment where there is a general development in the music happening, the music does change, and therefore most probably the kodo-kai music today does not sound exactly like what it sounded like in Araki kodo III's days. Music is not static, music is alive and changing no matter how serious we are about lineage, tradition and transmission. However, some times an air pocket can be created like in the case of Iwami Baikyoku, who was isolated from the general change in style of kinko-ryu happening in Japan. Thus he plays it much closer to Araki Kodo III and IV's style - at least according to the results done by Olsen.

Kiku Day wrote:

Thus he plays it much closer to Araki Kodo III and IV's style - at least according to the results done by Olsen.

Much closer than who? Did he do that by comparing Araki Kodo III and IV with Araki Kodo V and Tsuna Iwami? If he did, it would be interesting to hear what he found. To get a fair judgement he would have had to compare Tsuna Iwami with Kodokai playing in Japan. I wonder if he might have compared it to other schools. I think the bigger changes occur when a school splits off, such as Chikumeisha, Chikuyusha etc. perhaps when people split off to form a new school, differences in style occur as they strive to define themselves, and differentiate themselves from other schools. Riley mentions this about the creation of Chikuho-ryu and a deliberate differentiate in playing style.

Also the isolation thing sounds reasonable. But I do wonder. The other time I have heard this theory proposed about shakuhachi, was in Riley's thesis. He claimed that Iwamoto played nearer the style of Watazumi because of the same cultural isolation you have mentioned (he was in England). Riley said he learned from Yokoyama when Yokoyama was young, then kept that style alive in England, whereas in Japan Yokoyama's style naturally evolved. So in the end, Iwamoto kept the Yokoyama's older style so was nearer to Watazumi's style than Yokoyama became in his older days because of this isolation. The same as you say here. It's a nice theory. If he had just asked Iwamoto, he could have found out that his theory was actually wrong! Iwamoto deliberately tried to play more like Watazumi, by listening to his recordings!

As for this case, even though he was further away from other Kinko-ryu players, does that mean that he will keep a more old style, or does it mean his style will change more quickly? He seems to have been largely (mostly?) active in non-traditional music. I would expect that to effect his playing. Indeed, listening to his recordings, it sounds like he uses tonguing, which is a Western technique, in his honkyoku. I have heard neither Araki Kodo III nor Araki Kodo V using tonguing in their honkyoku. This seems like quite a drastic change. That is not to say his music is unauthentic - his style is clearly Kodo-kai.

To my ear, Araki Kodo V is closer to Araki Kodo III than at least those recordings I have heard of Tsuna Iwami. Also there are some things which Araki Kodo V deliberately plays differently to his grandfather's style. That is his personal musical taste. In such cases, he teaches us how his grandfather played, how he plays, and let's us decide for ourselves which way we want to play.

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

Hi there... Iwami Baikyoku is still active givin classes, performing and he is the president of Brasil Nihon Ongaku Kyokai (Brazilian association of Japanese Classic Music).A release press from a concert said that he started his studies with Hodo Igura and after that with Araki IV. 
 
One of his students was on WSF08. Danilo “Baikyo” Tomic is his name...did anyone meet him? 
 
I am planning a trip to São Paulo next year or soon as I have money on hands to get with Iwami... It will be really cool and a dream becoming true...

A big hug and peace,

Henrique

I met Danilo there - he was a really nice guy. I had to tend my shakuhachi most of the time so I missed his piece and many other things too unfortunately. Does he have anything we can listen to on the internet?

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

Kiku Day wrote:

I never thought [Iwamoto] played closer to Watazumi than Yokoyama. Does anyone think that?).

Absolutely. He often plays note for note what Watazumi plays, and his nuance is also extremely close. His tone is different. He also played at times on jinashi shakuhachi.

Kiku Day wrote:

I think the Iwami story is a bit different. He moved to Brazil with his mother. It was in the 1950s, another story when you want to take a plane to visit Japan than in the 1970s (even though I 1970s wasn't like how it is today either). The shakuhachi world in Brazil might have been slightly different to the environment Iwamoto was living in. Iwamoto taught shakuhachi at Wesleyan University, then went to UK and taught in York, Dartington and Durham Universities. He had lots of contact with musicians, ethnomusicologists and was in particular into new music and commissioned lots of composers to write for him. I know Iwami is very active and extremely important in presenting Japanese music and fusion music to Japanese-Brazilians and, of course, other Brazilians too. But they are two very different stories. I found it very interesting  to compare, though. I hadn't thought of this.

You can listen yourself if you like. Here are some recordings by Iwami:
http://www.dolsenmusic.com/books/chrysa … index.html

As he was involved as you say with fushion, and modern music (on that page there is a composition of his for flute), this is possibly where he acquired the Western influence of tonguing. I would suggest that if a player kept only to his original repertoire, there may be less chance for change?

On this page you can hear a little sample of Araki Kodo V playing shika no tone:
http://www.komuso.com/people/Araki_Kodo_V.html

On this page you can hear part of shika no tone played by Araki Kodo III
http://shakuhachi.komusou.jp/kinkoryuu/kinkoryuu.html

I am certainly not trying to say anything against Iwami. I was quite excited to hear that there is a Kodokai player in Brazil! I would love to hear more of his music. I just felt to speak up as the claim that his style of Kinko-ryu playing being lost in Japan is clearly incorrect, and indeed as is apparent from the recordings, the Kodo-kai style seems actually better preserved here in Japan (preserved somehow sounds like pickled! What I mean really is "alive and well"!) This is not to say anything against Olsen. I'm sure he is very thorough and proper. I expect that when he wrote that, Araki Kodo V was living in the U.S. The other players of our style here in Japan are quite underground. Indeed, when I first came to the lesson room, I was shocked! All of the students had amazing tone colour and played so well! Where had they all been hiding!?

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

Last edited by Justin (2008-09-02 11:24:06)

Kiku Day wrote:

justin, i have heard ALL the music you refer to MANY times. Of course, I have heard Iwami's music before and much more than what is up on the net.
Probably Araki Kodo V was living in the US when Olsen wrote that as he did live there for many years.
What are you now referring to when you say OUR? Yokoyama Kodo-kai?

Dear Kiku
Take a deep breath. If my information has been wrong, please continue to be informative.

Justin
http://senryushakuhachi.com/

Last edited by Justin (2008-09-02 11:43:42)